26.8 lbs in 4 weeks - 420.6

ello everyone, today is the start of my second month on the Take Shape For Life diet by Medifast. I thought I would do a recap of the month. Here is a picture of me at my heaviest, too heavy for the scale to weigh me and with me pushing down a bit on a drawer I weighed in at 447.4 lbs. (I did a test to see how much I pushed down the other day and it's probably about 4 to 6 lbs but since I can't be sure... I will go with the scale)

 Well, the month was difficult, I had cravings for everything from ice cream and hamburgers to pizza and wings. Despite this I kept with it and lost 26.8 lbs. I still have a long way to go but this picture of me at 1 month is a major motivation to me.

my clothes are starting to get looser and I am having more energy than I did a month ago. Here we go for month 2.

Once again, thanks for supporting me on my journey and good luck with yours.

Different Road... Same Journey - 424.6 lbs

First let me apologize about not posting for so long. I know I said I would keep myself accountable by writing in this blog, so I am starting it up again. The holidays were highly stressful with family gatherings, family drama, finals, and lots of food. I pretty much gave up. I ended up tipping the scales at about 450 lbs... why say about? Well it's because my scale says you're over the weight limit at 448 lbs and I had to press with about 3 - 5 lbs of pressure to register on the scale at 447.8 Since I don't have any way of knowing exactly how much I weighed, I am restarting my weight loss at that point. Since doing it myself obviously didn't work, my wife and I decided we would do some sort of weight loss group and hadn't decided which one when my Grandpa and Grandma offered to sponsor us for the first month of Taking Shape For Life's Medifast 5 & 1 program. This is similar to Nutrisystem in the fact that they ship your meals to you each month. In the 5 & 1 system you eat 5 of their meals which are 110 calories each and one large lean and green meal each day. In the lean and green meal you get 3 servings of low starch/carb vegetables and 5 to 7 ounces of lean protein. Go to http://www.tsfl.com/ to learn more.

Anyway, my wife and I started the diet on 1/6/2014 and I have lost 23.2 lbs. The first 3 days were difficult to get through. and my health coach encouraged me to have 6 mini meals and one lean and green each day until my body was used to the reduced calories which helped me out a ton. I have noticed that I have more energy and I have even started working out at the Provo Rec Center 3 to 4 times a week. That's all I have for you this week. Until next time, thank you for supporting me in my journey and good luck with yours.

Day 36 - 436.8 lbs

Hello again, it seems like this is turning into a biweekly blog. These last 2 weeks have been crazy stressful and full of eating out. I am surprised I lost, but I did it. So how did I do it this week? I have a website I love to go to which helps me to chose better foods when I eat out. http://www.exercise4weightloss.com/ has a ton of great tools to help, everything from BMI calculators and exercise routines to a massive list of restaurants' nutritional information and how it translates to WW Points and Points plus. I also have an app on my phone called Pts Plus Diary + Scanner (I have an android so I don't know if it is on the mac app store or not). It has a points plus calculator and bar-code scanner as well as activity tracker etc. It is a great resource right at my fingertips and if you are like me and can't afford a $40 a month subscription to Weight Watchers then it is perfect, the website is free and the app is a one time purchase of $3-4 I don't remember the exact ammount.

Once again, thanks for following me on my journey and good luck with yours.

Day 22 - 438 lbs

Hello everyone,

I am sorry about not posting last week, my wife and I were in Disneyland and having a blast. Usually when I go to Disneyland I go crazy over their candies, desserts, ice cream, cotton candy, and all their fattening foods... ok this time I did have cotton candy and I also ate most every meal in park but I did pretty good since over the last 2 weeks I lost 2 lbs and I was thinking I would gain because of Disneyland and the water retention that inevitably happens while flying. So what did I eat? well a great choice is the turkey leg, lots of lean meat and very little carbs (I am assuming that they glaze the leg a bit) I also had their roast turkey sandwich, their roast beef sandwich, and a clam chowder bowl. Granted I could have picked salads for all of my meals but I was in Disneyland and I wanted to have a slight detour from my weight loss within restraint. Well, now the detour is over and I am back on course. Thanks again for following me on my journey and good luck with yours.

Day 8 - 440 lbs

Well I did it, I stayed on track and lost 5 lbs this week. For those of you skinny people who think that is a lot, look at it this way. 5lbs is only 1.1% of my starting body weight. That being said, it is a healthy amount of weight loss. I feel a sense of accomplishment at this point of staying on track more than I feel any physical changes in my body at this point.

This week has been especially stressful with additional family drama on top of everything work and school throws my way and I was pressed for time most days so I didn't really get the chance to cook at all. Most of what I ate were frozen meals with the occasional visit to a restaurant. I know what you're saying, those aren't the healthiest choices of foods. I know. I knew that this week was going to be hard so I planned ahead. I chose to purchase Weight Watchers' Smart Ones meals and already had on hand some Michelina's Lean Gourmet meals which are decidedly better for you than... say Hungry Man or Banquet frozen meals and DEFINITELY better than eating out for every meal as I have been known to do (one of the main reasons I am living large right now). I knew that wouldn't be enough for me so I bought peaches, plums, apples, bananas, and already had on hand part skim string cheese, and nuts. These are all healthy, grab-n-go, items that helped me satisfy my hunger.

Another thing I did this week was to give in to my sweet tooth every day in small amounts. I know it's probably my initial weight that allows me to do that so often, but I know I love sweets and if I can choose to have one every now and then instead of quitting cold turkey, then I am less likely to go off the deep end once my will power crumbles away.

So... in a nutshell, the lessons I have learned this week, and hope to pass on to you are:

1. Plan ahead and go shopping
2. If you know, from step 1, that you can't have the best, settle for second or third best... it's still better than other options out there
3. Reward yourself in moderation.

I hope this has been helpful. Thank you for following me through my first week of my weight loss journey. Good luck with yours.

Day 1 - 445 lbs

Hello everyone, My name is Brandon. I am 29 years old, 6'4" tall and I weigh 445 lbs as of this morning being the heaviest I have ever been to date, it is my hope that it will be the heaviest I will ever be. I have tried many things to get my weight under control with small successes, but I have never stuck with it. I am hoping that with this level of transparency and honesty I will be able to find greater success.

Among the various diets I have tried are Weight Watchers, South Beach, MD Diet, and the McDougal Diet. All of these diets emphasize eating healthy foods in moderation with exercise. I will attempt in my journey to use my favorite recipes and prepared meals from all of these diets to lend variety to my diet in order to keep me from being bored with the diet. I will track my portions using the Weight Watchers PointsPlus values to keep me from over-eating.

To be honest, I am a bit nervous about putting my weight loss out there for everyone to see. I am usually a very private person, and I enjoy that privacy. I welcome your thoughts and prayers on my behalf. If you are on a similar journey, or know of anyone who is, I welcome your comments and invite you to share this blog with others.